Pence looks forward to first playoff

Thursday

When you walk into a franchise and are expected to be the final piece that leads a team to a world championship, there’s a certain amount of pressure that goes along with it.

And yet, Hunter Pence has never felt that type of strain when he joined the Phillies at the July 31 trade deadline — the same one that Carlos Beltran felt when he walked into the Giants locker room.

“I knew that these guys were good guys and I knew that I was going to have fun,” Pence said. “I wasn’t surprised. I’m a people person.”

That persona — and a pretty good performance at the plate since his arrival — has made Pence already a popular figure on a team filled with some characters. And on Saturday, he’ll take part in the first postseason game of his five-year big league career when the Phillies open up play in the National League Division Series.

“I’m looking forward to playing the games,” Pence said during an interview last weekend in New York. “I’ve got to continue to mentally get focus for that. But sure, I think you always think about what it would be like to play in the playoffs.”

Since arriving in town on July 29, Pence has been just about everything that the Phillies had asked for. Heading into Wednesday night’s regular-season finale against the Braves, Pence was hitting .320 with 11 homers and 34 RBIs for the Phils, giving what had been an anemic middle of the lineup a big punch of adrenaline.

“He’s been great for us,” first baseman Ryan Howard said. “He came in here and just fit right in.”

Pence is a hybrid of a lot of guys in the Philadelphia locker room. He brings Utley’s grind-it-out style and studying of pitchers and approaches at the plate. He has become a perfectionist, constantly working at different things.

“That is something that has developed over time,” Pence said. “I have a hunger to try to go out there and get better. There are physical fundamentals to the game of baseball, but there’s also a mental side of the game that you have to keep working on over and over again.”

He is a lot like Shane Victorino and Ryan Howard, however, in that he’s not afraid to bring his personality to the forefront — often joking around and laughing with teammates and reporters during pregame preparations.

“I don’t try to give myself a style or look at other things,” Pence said. “I’m just trying to be me out there and being myself and being a good teammate.”

So far, that has also made him a fan favorite. A band by the name of Platt Bridge has created a tribute song for Pence using his catch phrase “Let’s Go Eat.” Pence jerseys have become popular items around the ballpark.

“It’s been a great thing here,” Pence said. “We come to the ballpark, we’re professionals and we want to win. But we’re also going to have some fun, too.”